Today we are taking the train to Prague but the first of our
two trains is not leaving until 7.30PM so we have to fill in our day. The hotel we have has a 12PM checkout so we
stayed in our room until 11.30Am working on our blogs/diaries etc., but the
internet here is woeful, that’s why I have fallen behind. On TV there was this
BBC documentary on zoos and farming.
This one guy usually raises sheep but is going to buy pigs for the first
time. In this weird Norfolk accent
(think of the barman in Kingdom if you watch the ABC), he is concerned for his
sheep dog as he doesn’t know if he has seen pigs before. It loses something in the translation but it
was awfully funny at the time.
Leaving our luggage at the hotel, we visited the Brussels
museum in the Old Town Hall. It was a
lovely and engaging museum. We opted not
to use the audio guide (standard in most museums in Europe) but it covered lots
of different things, breathtaking altar pieces, wonderful faience ceramics,
tapestries and dioramas. They need a few
more labels on things but the museum was a gem.
After a bite of lunch we decided to visit the Belgian Military
Museum. Information told us which
station to go to. We made it to the
central train station but we couldn’t see any of the Metro lines. Unsuccessfully attempting to purchase tickets
we found a live attendant who sold us the tickets for the Metro but we couldn’t
find the platforms. Luckily we found an attendant who pointed us the right direction. We found ourselves on the platform but we
could work out from the sign that we were on the wrong side. Having fixed that problem it was simple after
that. I imagine that this was much less crowded than the French Metro.
Entry to the Museum was free but they did have an extra paid
exhibition on World War 1. I was keen to
see the museum as I had heard that Stapleton Cotton (British Waterloo officer)
had donated his Waterloo collection. It
had been, I was led to believe to be in the Brussels Museum but it wasn’t
there. I did not have high hopes for
this museum but OMG! Admittedly often displayed
in the old museum style it was nonetheless impressive. We started with the Napoleonic display and it
was a good collection with some field guns that did seem to be lacking at the
Waterloo 1815 Museum (all except for a British 6pdr). The museum covered all
the different conflicts involving the Belgians. I just assumed it would just be
a heap of paintings of the Belgians running away.
As we moved around the museum it became obvious that it was
a comprehensive collection. They had field guns, tanks and aircraft – lots of
aircraft!! They
just had so much stuff.
Altar piece
Below the Belgian Military Museum.
We eventually made our way back to the Metro and our hotel
just after 6.30PM and after a shuttle ride to the train station we then were
able to find our train’s platform. The
train wasn’t crowded and we arrived in Koln and had to wait an hour, luckily we
asked an attendant who knew which platform we needed. Our train was delayed and we chatted to a lady
from the UK who was joining a cycling tour. Finding our sleeper for our
overnight journey. Elizabeth described it as travelling in a dog box, but
enough about me, she describes it as a moving, shaking box. I’m not sure we would do this again but it
did seem like a sensible idea at the time.
We seem to have some residual effects as we keep thinking our hotel room
is moving.
No comments:
Post a Comment